Like No-One Ever Was
by wingcat
Summary: The Journal of a trainer in the world of pokemon as it could have been. The Elite four have held the land in a vice grip of tyranny for the past century, and up until now only one trainer has risen to face them, and he was never heard from again. Now John, a new trainer, seeks to succeed where that other trainer failed, and bring peace and unity to the Kanto Region.


Day 1. I start my adventure with little more than the advice of my mentor, Professor Oak, my backpack, and my pokedex. As I was about to leave, Professor Oak called me into his laboratory and told me that since his grandson was late I would get the first choice of pokemon. The choices were extremely difficult, Either I chose bulbasaur, the grass-type pokemon, squirtle, the water-type pokemon or Charmander, the fire-type pokemon... upon inspecting the pokemon, however, I realized that the bulbasaur had become quite attached to the professor, and I didn't want to destroy a bond between a man and his closest pokemon. I almost chose squirtle, but there was an anger in its eyes that was unmistakable, and I did not want a pokemon that held such hatred in it. So it was that I chose the cute, scaly charmander. When I went over to it, I could see it wagging its flaming tail expectantly. I told Professor Oak my choice and as I did none other than Gary Oak appears... demanding the squirtle, he takes the pokeball, pushing his grandfather out of the way to do so, and leaves, quick as that. Professor Oak tries to make some excuse about Gary having a rough upbringing, but I didn't believe him, I knew Gary too well... in any event, the good professor asked if I'd like to name my new friend, and after a moment's pondering I nod and say his name will be Jack, after my favorite cartoon character. With that Professor Oak gave me a pat on the back and I set off for adventure with my new friend by my side, into the unknown with one goal in mind: become the very best... like no-one ever was.

Day 2: Jack and I have been travelling through the fields near my hometown for a few hours and have had to have fights with pidgys and rattatas, it was intense! The thrill of my first battle was awesome. Unfortunately I did not have any pokeballs or I would have tried to catch one or two of them, but I did not. I can also tell that Jack is enjoying being out in the wild and he learned a new 'ember' attack, which is sweet, he never used to use fire attacks. I can see a town ahead, I'll update you again tomorrow once I've had time to go around the town and maybe buy some pokeballs.

Day 3... or is it 4? I heard yesterday that there was a gym leader in town. So like any young trainer I decided to stop in and see if Jack and I could handle the guy... after stopping by the pokecenter, of course. I even bought three pokeballs and a potion for the road. So I went to the gym. As far as I could tell the place was just a confusing conveyor belt system. After what seemed like hours of making my way through the gym, I finally found the gym leader dressed in red business suit... I can' remember his name, just flashes of the battle... I summoned Jack who was so eager... The other man summoned some large, sleek... cat of some kind. It was upon Jack in a flash... He never stood a chance. Neither did I. It all happened so fast. Jack was down before I could blink but the cat kept attacking him... I summoned him back...hoping to cool the creature's rage... but that fanned the flames of its fury from ember to fire blast...It pounced. I put up my arms to defend myself but they were knocked aside like twigs in a raging river... A mass of sharpened claws tore my arms away from protecting my face...then the claws descended once more. I could hear a nauseating TEARING sound as the razor sharp claws stuck into the bone above my left eyebrow and ripped downward...vision in my left eye went RED even as white hot searing pain shot down the left side of my face from brow to jawline... I thought I was dead.  
In my semi-conscious state of pain I heard the calm, voice of the man say "That's enough" with all the passion of a man telling a pet to drop a nasty rodent it had slaughtered. I could feel myself falling to the ground even as I faded into darkness. The last thing I can remember is the man's voice, faint as a hissing snake on the opposite side of a meadow..."Jessie, James...Get in here and get this filth off of my carpet... then we have work to do..." The cold venom of his voice dripped through my mind as I blacked out... ... ...  
I awoke with a start, sharp blades of pain shooting through the left side of my face like knives... or claws..."...Jack?" I found myself saying... my voice little more than a croak.  
To my surprise a voice responded to me... and not the cold voice of the red man, but the warm, comforting voice of a woman, "Your charmander? He's fine...much better than you... Your eye... "...She trailed off...or seemed to as I slowly faded back into the shadows.

Day 4: I awoke and realized that I was in a home. I immediately began looking around for the pokeball with Jack in it. I found my pack that held my map and pokedex as well as the provisions I had bought yesterday.  
I was starting to get worried when I heard a faint voice that I recognized saying "char ...der …man-man..." My heart leapt and I jumped out of bed... or tried to... when I stood up I not only got lightheaded, but with the light-headness came a red-hot pain in my left eye... In my exultation I had forgotten about my wound...I remembered it now. It was all I could do to fall back on the bed rather than collapsing onto the floor. I heard footsteps, then a woman's voice... the same voice I remembered from the day before. She was telling me that I needed to stay awake for a bit so I pushed myself up with what strength I could muster and sat up in the bed. The woman introduced herself as Dr. Joyce Joy, nurse joy's mother, it seemed. She had found me near death behind the city's gym clutching onto a pokeball. Healing Jack had been as simple as taking him to the pokecenter. People weren't so easy to heal. Jack had apparently been helping Joyce around the house while I had been unconscious. Now that I was up, Dr. Joy called him upstairs. He immediately ran over and hugged me, tail wagging. Dr. Joyce chuckled and then went and got me soup. When she got back, she told me that I would likely be better in the morning (except my eye, which could take a week or more to heal.) She suggested I should eat the chicken-rice soup and then rest some more...So I did.

Day 5: Today, after waking up, I was ready to head out. Dr. Joy graciously made some rice cakes for breakfast and gave me some more for the road. She warned me not to go back to fight the gym leader again, as he was far more powerful than I would be any time soon. She suggested that I go north and attempt to face the gym leader there, Brock. He was said to be a man with a heart as cold as the stone of the pokemon he raised. He was a monster, but, purportedly the weakest of the gym leaders that had held this land in a vice grip for the tyrannical and ruthless elite four for generations. I left on that note, thanking Joyce for all the kindness she had shown me. Before I could leave town, however, a crazy old man decided it was his job to show me how to throw a pokeball... I watched and thanked him politely, but walked away before he could show me how to use potions or something ridiculous like that...  
I continued on and eventually I was assaulted by a bug catcher named Andy... he told me I couldn't beat him because his bug pokemon were "All that" and upon saying that he said "Go weedle!" I was ready. I pulled out my pokeball and shouted "Go Jack!" The battle was on. The fight was much more anticlimactic than I expected... I told charmander to use ember, and just like that the weedle was defeated. Andy forked over $200 (which he told me it was customary to give half your money to anyone who defeated you, so they wouldn't kill you... a barbaric custom, but he was rather adamant on doing so.) So I took his money grudgingly as he ran for the nearest pokecenter. I was just about to enter the forest when a small bug I recognized as caterpie assaulted me. I summoned Jack in a flash, and he defeated the bug before I could even throw a pokeball... as we started on our way through the forest, we were beset by dozens of the little bugs, weedles, caterpies, and even the occasional metapod or kakuna. I could sense Jack's growing power, as well as his growing fatigue... I could see the exit of the forest as a creature, much larger than any of the bugs before, jumped in front of us, single horn raised in challenge. I summoned Jack once more, but I could tell he was tired... I told him to use ember, and after he did, I could tell it was his last one until he restored some of his strength. The creature (which my pokedex had identified as heracross) was still standing, and it hit my charmander so hard I thought for sure he was out for the count, but the little guy was still holding on. I quickly grabbed a potion and used it to heal my little friend. Instantly he was revitalized, and no sooner did he heal than did the creature strike again, but it missed this time and charmander tackled the much larger creature to the ground. The blue beetle creature fought back but I could tell it was tired and after another tackle from my charmander it barely had the strength to horn attack Jack again. Jack was hurting, but not so bad as he was after the first attack, and strangely he started emitting smoke in a screen in front of himself, which caused the creature to miss even more. I could tell that Jack was out of fight power, and his new ability didn't seem to be offensive, so I took a chance and let one of my pokeballs fly.  
The creature was sucked up into the orb and I stood anxiously as the pokeball wriggled once, twice... (I held my breath, knowing I needed the third wriggle not to open the pokeball and then I could start training this new guy) the moment seemed to stretch on forever as the third and final wriggle eventually settled in, the quiet of the forest filling in where once the clamor of battle had drowned out all other sounds. Turned out the old man's technique was pretty good after all. I summoned the creature, and it stared at me, I could see respect in its eyes and I could tell from my pokedex that its horn was much sharper than others of its kind... so I decided to name it Edge. With that done, I walked over to the end of the forest, but not before noticing a bag clasped in bony fingers jutting out of the earth... I pulled on the bag, causing the fingers to break off into dust at the force, and looked inside. The contents were: one potion, one blue and red pokeball. That must have been a great ball, and a fishing rod. I took them all, and offered a short prayer to the dead before heading through the light at the end of the forest.

Day 6: Upon exiting the forest I realized that I had been in there for the whole night, as the sun had just risen. I continued north, using the potion I had found to heal Edge, because Jack wouldn't have the energy to use his moves even if he were healed, plus, I wanted to see what my newest friend was capable of. I was able to do this quickly, as the trainers had just come out for the day.  
My first battle of the day was against a young boy named Joey. He told me before our battle that he had a "top-tier rattata," so when he summoned it, I was on my guard. I summoned edge and told him to use his most powerful attack, and to my surprise, instead of using horn attack as I suspected it would, or even its tackle, it began coalescing dark energies around its claw hand and it slashed out at the poor rattata with claws as dark as night itself. Needless to say, even a top-tier rattata wasn't getting back up from that without first spending some quality time at a nearby pokecenter. I accepted Joey's $400 (where did a 6-year old get that kind of money, anyway?) and I continued north, to pewter town. My next few battles went similarly, and I even started one of my fights with Jack and his smokescreen, then promptly switched him out so Edge could get a horn attack in on some poor girl's pikachu. (Disgusting little creatures if you ask me) between that and the other three fights I had today, a trio of uninspired bugcatchers, Simon, Rick and Alex, who had respectively; a caterpie and metapod, a weedle and kakuna, and Alex's ridiculous combo of a metapod and a kakuna (which I honestly believe was created to force me to hit his pokemon more as all they did was harden their shells.) I made a good haul because of all of it, a total of $2310 today plus the $200 I had gotten from Andy brought me up to just over $2500! I imagine I'll be spending quite a bit on potions tomorrow, when I finally reach Pewter town. As for tonight, Jack has lit the campfire with his tail, and the three of us are going to get some much needed shut eye... (Speaking of eyes, mine still hurts like the dickens, but winning so much money today has certainly served to help dull the pain.)

Day 7: I have finally reached pewter town. At first the place seemed nice enough, I healed my pokemon at the nearby pokecenter and got another five potions and three pokeballs (costing a total of $1300) however, after about an hour, I realized all of the men in the village were forced to mine the quarry... those that didn't, apparently, were killed by the taskmaster's rock-type pokemon to show the others what happened to those who disobeyed the gym leaders. I was appalled and as I walked to the gym. Two trainers awaited my arrival inside. They were Brock's cronies and they said for me to fight him, I'd have to go through them. The first trainer threw out what at first I thought was a rock, only with a face... geodude. I had sent out my charmander to use smokescreen. It was faster, but the geodude still hit him with a tackle. I called Jack back and sent forth edge and his powerful night slash. Geodude didn't immediately fall, but neither did he hit, the smoke causing him to miss. Heracross used another night slash and that dealt with that trainer. He also gave me $500. The other trainer started off with geodude and the first half of the battle went much the same way with charmander using smokescreen (except this geodude missed Jack altogether) and then sending out my heracross to deal with the geodude, the geodude hit edge with a tackle that didn't do too much, and heracross finished it with another night slash, then the battle shifted. The trainer smirked and yelled "go nosepass!" And a stone creature with a red nose was summoned, I told Edge to use another night slash, and it hit, but the nosepass started throwing huge rocks at him. Edge was looking pretty beat, but he got off a horn attack, but that wasn't very effective, and with a second rock, Edge was nearly out. He got out another night slash, but the nosepass was still up, and it tackled Edge to the ground, knocking him out. I had no choice but to summon Jack. He burst out of the ball with a "Char!" And threw up a smokescreen. The nosepass still hit him with a rock throw, but Jack was still up. He used ember, and thanks to the damage edge had done the flames seemed to hurt it a little. The creature attacked Jack again, but the rock missed and charmander got a scratch in, and another as the thrown rocks missed. A third rock buzzed past Jack as he got in another scratch. Nosepass changed tactics, it tackled charmander who tackled it right back. The two rolled and tumbled on the ground for a few moments before nosepass stood up, battered. It kicked Jack for good measure and started to walk away, but up came a flaming tail, right in nosepasses...well, nose... and that seemed to disorient it and charmander tackled it again and didn't stop scratching it until it didn't get back up... then Jack hobbled back over to me.  
"How?! I... I had the type advantage!" The trainer yelped.  
"Type isn't everything, now where's Brock?" I growled.  
"In... in the quarry, teaching some rebellious old man a lesson. You can't beat him, he's tougher than us!" The man yelled at me.  
In the most even voice I could muster I said "So was I..." I turned to go. I could hear an audible sigh from behind me. I spun around as quickly as I could and shot the second trainer my coldest glare "Where's my money?!" I growled in my most intimidating voice. The man nearly fell over himself to give me his $700. "Good, now go tell Brock I'm coming for him at the quarry. He'd better be there." That said I spun around and walked out the door to make a quick stop at the pokecenter before heading to face the Quarrymaster.

Day 8: One thing I think people don't understand about pokecenters is that they aren't quite hospitals. Not like we go to in any event. Pokecenters are also not some crazy, magical place where pokemon are instantly heals. They are, however somewhere between the two. Healing a pokemon at the pokecenter can take up to an hour, or slightly over. I'll explain while I'm waiting how the whole process goes down. First, you need to understand that a pokeball converts a pokemon to its basic energies by reading its DNA instantly and doing a scan of its brain-waves and some other sciency mumbo-jumbo. Once you understand that it is a lot easier to explain. When a pokemon is damaged, their mix of all that mumbo-jumbo (we'll call it their 'code') well, when a pokemon is hurt, their code shows different... data. But when a pokemon has their pokeball, it reads how they should be, and that data is stored. Making it a relatively simple matter for the pokecenter healing machines to fix that code with neutrinos, and electric fields and gamma rays and a whole bunch of other stuff that goes right over my head. Regardless, what I know for sure is that it takes about an hour of this neutrino rewriting for a pokemon to get back to fighting shape. So after an hour of waiting Nurse Joy (one of Joyce's dozen or so daughters, this one was named Janice, I found out and she had the familial pink hair, but was much more talkative than her mother.)  
When I finally managed to pry my ear away from Janice, I began walking from the light green and brown of the downs dying grass to the many shades of grey that was the quarry. It was loud there. The sounds of whips and grinding stone. Of grunting workers and yelling crew leaders. Of beaten slaves and cruel quarrymasters. One thing that struck me as strange was that almost all of the quarrymasters were in their teens or younger. I realized that these must be Brock's brothers and sisters. The quarry opened up into a wide main area, and, standing on a platform was the man himself. He was unmistakably in charge, he wore a green vest over finely toned muscles and his squinty eyes saw every slip or stumble in the quarry and rewarded each with a vicious crack of his three headed whip, which he had named, it was rumored, grindstone. It was drenched in blood, and there were red streaks all around the pedestal from his victims, giving Brock the look of some spiky haired god of war receiving blood tribute. He turned. He saw me. His squinty eyes nearly disappeared under the dissatisfied furrowing of his brow.  
"So, you must be the one my trainers told me about, what is your name, boy?" Brock said with a gravelly voice that spoke of years inhaling stone dust.  
Not wanting to seem intimidated, I spoke up over the dying din as slaves and masters alike turned to see the newcomer who challenged their bloody god "My name is John, and I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"  
Brock smirked, "Go home, boy, you're not worth my time."  
I stood up straighter and growled back at him "Does the pact of the badge mean nothing to the high and mighty Brock of Pewter town?"  
He froze. "What did you say?" He almost whispered, if whispers could rumble.  
"You heard me, I invoke the pact of the badge, that ancient rite which gives any trainer the option of facing off against all of the gym leaders, one by one, to obtain your badges, or had you forgotten in your complacency? Well, let me remind you, one-hundred years ago, the ruling body of Kanto decided that the most powerful trainers should be our leaders. It was decided, there would be four to rule over the land, and they would choose their heirs, and their guardians... you and the other gym leaders. But there was a loophole. If anyone could defeat them, they would become champion and would rule the land, in the stead of the four. But to reach the four one needed to defeat those guardians... those gym leaders and collect their badges, in only then could they travel through the mountain to reach indigo plateau..." I trailed off, I could tell by the angry curve of his squinty eyes that he had no choice but to accept.  
After a tense moment he spoke "Alright, trainer John, I accept, but do you know, that in that century only one has defeated the gym leader of Pewter City? And that was a long time ago. No-one has invoked the pact of the badge in a decade, hundreds died before you, what's one more under the rubble? Go, geodude!"  
The fight was on, I summoned Edge, to start. Likely the trainers would have filled their master in on my strategy against them. If I was hoping my throwing a heracross first would confuse him, I was mistaken. He started immediately, keeping his cool composure. Geodude threw a rock at heracross and it hit square on. Heracross was already hurt, this was bad. Edge used his night slash it seemed to hurt the geodude, geodude countered with a tackle. Edge kept on pounding with his night slash. The geodude did what it could, but the slashes were too much, and eventually it fell. I smiled, my heracross was barely harmed. Then I noticed it. Brock wasn't sweating it because he had five more pokeballs. I readied myself as he threw out another geodude. Edge kept pummeling the geududes, but by the third he was exhausted and by the fourth he was on his last leg. So when the fifth geodude came out I knew he didn't have it in him to continue, he was already on the ground, panting for air. I called him back, knowing that Jack would be at a disadvantage against a rock-type one on one. Both unharmed.  
So the fight began, the geodude chucked rocks at my charmander and Jack was hurling embers right back at the strange rock creature. I could tell that he was outmatched, but Jack wasn't about to give up. Jack let out a bone crunching tackle that barely cracked the stony exterior of the geodude, and, just like the one the trainer had had, it fought right back with a tackle of its own, I used the first of my potions then, remembering that I had them. Charmander stood a little straighter and kept hitting the geodude with scratches to the face, which, of course constitutes most of a geodude's body. And after another tiring round of this, the geodude finally fell.  
Brock began to laugh. "Well, looks like I've ground you down a bit, seems like it is time to send out my powerful pokemon... Onyx, GO!" I nearly fell over at the strength of the force that shook the ground as the massive beast crashed onto the ground... Onyx... I had heard of that pokemon, but I had never expected it to be so huge, it was like a snake made of BOULDERS... let me repeat that. A giant boulder-bodied snake the size of a school-bus. Needless to say, I was the tiniest bit worried.  
I immediately used a potion. Four left. The Onyx let out a roar and hit a critical blow against my charmander with a tail attack, so, I was forced to use up another potion. Charmander used another ember but that was about as effective as trying to burn down a rock wall with a cigarette. This was bad, the onyx did another tail attack and I used another potion... two left. 'Fastest $600 I ever used up' I thought to myself. Jack just barely dodged as I used another potion. Brock could tell that my charmander didn't perk up from that one  
"Looks like he's giving up, boy. Guess you won't be getting one of these after all" the blood-soaked man laughed, holding up a small, pewter-colored pin, the stonebadge. "But don't worry, boy, I can always use another pair of hands in the quarry, and I can't remember the last time I ate charmander burgers." This last word was accentuated with a cruel grin.  
I used another potion.  
The tail came down. Charmander fell.  
"So that's it? Just a beaten-up bug to squish... How pathetic." Now I smiled a smile of my own "Go Edge!" I shouted, and there was my heracross, all healed up.  
Brock took a step back in astonishment, it was the first trace of fear I'd seen in him since I got here. He must have fallen for my ruse, he thought I was healing Jack that whole time, and here was a fully healed heracross staring down his onyx. Then the fight began in earnest. Heracross started with a horn attack, then going into a tackle, or so I thought at first, but it looked like he was just chipping away at the onyx... he was more reserved, more precise. We had a chance. Then it happened. Heracross dodged an attack from the onyx, but the creature's massive bulk crashed into a wooden platform that had been holding tons and tons of stone... it fell right on top of both of them. I winced and cried out, but it was muffled by the thunderous roar of half a mountain of stone falling on the two pokemon. Then it was over. Nothing could survive that.  
"Heh, looks like I win." Brock laughed as the dust settled, nothing could survive that. Not even Onyx, too bad, but he was failing me, he had to be sacrificed so you wouldn't win. You didn't think he missed on purpose, did you? I ordered him to his death, him and your tiresome bug." He was right, in the result of a tie, the gym leader won... and got to choose what to do with the trainer who he had defeated.  
"You monster..." I whispered.  
"What was that, boy? Or should I say slave-boy?" Brock chuckled, " onyx are replaceable. I'm not. Grow up boy. Pokemon are tools for victory, nothing more." But as he said that, the rocks began to shift. "Maybe not so useless after all..." Brock rumbled "Get out of there and get to work!"  
The rocks moved away, but the voice that came out of them wasn't the deep rumbling of an onyx, but the even, exhausted 'Hera...cross" and the last boulder rolled away.  
"Edge!" I yelled and ran across the stone to hug my risen friend. The onyx must be dead, but heracross must have found some way to endure! I looked at Brock. "What was that about victory?" I asked.  
Brock winced and turned to run, but he came face-to-face with an angry mob, hundreds of men, and the unconscious bodied of his siblings, the crowd fell upon him. There would be no more sacrifices to that blood-soaked god.  
A short while later, a man with a long graying beard and scars all over his body shuffled over to me and put a small thing in my hands. He spoke with the voice of a man who had seen it all, and survived. "Thank you... boy. Now go. You shouldn't be here when the four come and find him broken. Keep going. Good luck boy." The man walked away. I looked down at the small pewter badge in my hand for a long moment before standing again.  
"I won't let you down, old man, you can bet on that." If he heard me he didn't show any signs of it as he helped the younger men clean the red mess that had once been their master off of the quarry stone. Time to go to the pokecenter and heal my pokemon back to full health. I looked over at the red smear diminishing with the water washing it away and the pile of rocks that now entombed that onyx and I shook my head... one thing about neutrinos... they don't heal death.

Day 9: Once I got my pokemon all neutrino-healed at the pokecenter, I had to head out of town. The Elite Four would have heard of Brock's defeat and would be trying to figure out who defeated him. Best not to make it easy for them. I travelled east, toward a mountain that loomed in the distance. Mount moon, home to those little demons, jigglypuff. I was ambushed by no less than a dozen of the little beasts, not to mention nearly a dozen clefairys (which are nearly as bad as the jigglypuffs, if not so loud) and the usual fare of pidgeys, rattatas and the occasional caterpie. I came across two trainers who were very surprised to see someone coming from Pewter Town, but they challenged me, regardless. The first was a mountain climber named Burt, and he had a geodude, but after fighting Brock, a geodude was exactly what I was ready for. I defeated him easily, and collected his $600 but not before he gave me a lantern to see my way through Mt. Moon. (Apparently trainers in the past totally forgot to bring lanterns and had to use their electric-type pokemon to see in deep caves.)  
Burt assured me that Mt. Moon didn't get as dark as places like Rock Tunnel, but said it would be a good idea to have the lantern in any event. The second trainer was a young man training for karate, his name was Gunt. He had a really cool pokemon called mankey, and a machop, the mankey put up a really good fight against Jack. The furry creature was throwing out karate chops and low kicks like it was nobody's business. Jack had all he could do just to throw out a few embers between blows. Something strange happened though, near the end of the fight, Jack started going into a rage, blowing blue fire everywhere, and that messed up the mankey something fierce. When Gunt threw out his machop, I switched over to Edge. The machop was obviously tougher than the Mankey. It started by focusing its energy. I had heracross hit it with a nightslash, but that didn't seem to do much, then they were at it, the machop flinging low kicks, leg sweeps and karate chops, and Edge just chipping away at his opponent like he did against Brock's onyx. It was amazing how much control these two pokemon had, I was impressed, even when Edge finished the machop witn an attack from his horn, I could do nothing but cheer. I shook Gunt's hand and he gave me half of his $100 (guess perfecting the body doesn't pay that well these days.)  
Gunt told me he was heading to the inn right outside Mt. Moon to rest the night. He advised that I do the same. We walked to the inn and paid our night's stay ($50) which included use of their pokecenter facilities. We both headed to our respective rooms to turn in for the night. So tomorrow, I face Mt. Moon. Until then, I'm gonna enjoy a good night's rest.

Day 10: After leaving the inn, I headed toward Mt. Moon. It was a massive place with an entrance to the cave system very near to the Inn. (For tourists, no doubt.) So, I had Jack ignite the light in the lantern with his tail and we went inside.. Now when I was saying the place was huge on the outside it seemed even more massive from within, it must have been one hundred feet high with massive stalactites, and towering stalagmites. There was no real path in the cave and the faint smell of moisture permeated the air. There were also zubats.  
So many zubats.  
Every three steps, zubat. Turn a corner, zubat. Climb an incline… zubat. Fortunately when I went through a thin door-sized pathway, the zubats ceased... just kidding, more zubats... the only bonus was that Jack and Edge were getting experience training their moves against these flying pests. Zubats. Zubats. Zubats. So when I was nearing the exit, and I could even see the light, so of course I heard the sounds of pain down a side passage and though I yearned to get away from those blasted flying rodents my goal was to make Kanto a better place, so, with a sigh, I turned down the dark passage. Zubats. Zubats. Zubats.  
I finally turned the corner to see the issue, zubat. Sorry, no, the problem was two people dressed in all black suits with two bright red 'r's on the chest harassing an old man who had a handful of white glowing stones.  
"Give up the stones, old man, and we might let you go" said the high pitched voice of the first person, a woman with long, bright red hair.  
"Oh-ho yes, team rocket can be most merciful when old men pay their dues, isn't that right, Jessie?" Came the iffeminate voice of the blue-haired man with her.  
I was just about to deal with those two when something strange happened, their meowth spoke, "Yeah James, now let's beat those stones out of this man! Mee-owth, that's right!"  
With that said, they went in for the attack, but I stepped in yelling. "Hey, you two! Stop and fight someone your own size and leave that poor old man alone!" They turned in my direction and spoke back to me, perturbed.  
The woman spoke first "Boy, got out of here, this doesn't concern you."  
But then the man, James spoke," Oh no, Jessie, doesn't this boy look familiar? Look at the bandage. This is that trash of a boy who tried to go against Gio..."  
He was cut off as Jessie elbowed him in the gut and she spoke up, "So it is, James. Master wanted us to take out the trash. He thought the boy would bleed out, he'll be most displeased if he finds out the boy was still alive, we'll have to remedy that, won't we Meowth?"  
Then Meowth spoke up, "Mee-oowth, that's right!"  
Then I spoke, "Well then, stop yammering and bring it on!" So with that the battle was on.  
The blue-haired man stepped up "Let me start this Jessie. Go, koffing!" A big ball of purple emerged from the ball with a dim-witted expression and an underbite.I started off the fight by summoning Edge. The two pokemon stared each other down, then Edge attacked with his horn, hitting the purple creature so hard that its floating form bounced off two stalagmites before returning to make its attack, a mist of poisonous air. Edge breathed it in but continued on to hit the koffing square between its dumb eyes with a horn attack so hard that I cringed. After the koffing had finished bouncing around like some sort of pokemon pinball, James summoned it back.  
Jessie stepped up. "Stop playing around, James" she said," Watch me take out this runt, go, ekans!" Edge remained out, the ekans was faster though, and it wrapped around him. Edge was having none of that and he tore away with that night slash he did, the ekans wasn't looking so good, but then neither was Edge with all of that poison coursing through his veins. Ekans bit heracross, but heracross rammed it with its horn so hard that it didn't get back up.  
Jessie summoned it back," He's stronger than when he fought the master, I think it's time for a tactical retreat.  
"Couldn't agree more, Jessie! Team rocket's blasting off again!" They had started running before the words ever left their lips.  
I went over to the man and asked him if he was ok, after putting Edge back in his pokeball. The man said he was fine and asked how he could repay me. The only thing I could think of was an antidote for the poison. The man had a whole bunch and gave me one, saying that the paras that lived here in the cave used poison to hunt their prey. I laughed, trying to imagine anything other than zubats living in this cave was just too much for me. The laughing began to hurt my bad eye, so I stopped laughing pretty quick as I winced at the acute pain in my skull.  
I turned to go but the man's voice behind me made me stop and turn around," Boy, take one of these, they are moonstones, very rare, but I have more than enough to give one to such an honorable trainer."  
"What does it do?" I responded quizzically.  
"Well, it evolves some pokemon to their most powerful forms, I figure it may come in handy for you."  
"Are you sure, sir? It was nothing, really. Anybody would have done that, I just happened to be around."  
"I'm sure, and no, not just anyone could have done that. You remind me of a boy long ago, who had a spark in his eye, like yours. He went on to fight the Elite four." The old man responded with a gleam in his eye.  
"What happened to him?" I asked, genuinely interested.  
"What happens to everyone who faces the elite four, " the old man whispered, a deep sorrow filling his voice," he was never heard from again, but take this, maybe it will help you in your journeys."  
I took the white stone and placed it carefully in my backpack before saying my goodbyes to the old man. I used the antidote and dealt with no less than two dozen more zubats before finally seeing the light again. Behind a wall af zubats. I summoned Jack as we fought our way through the vermin. Each step there was another zubat. Zubat. Zubat. Zubat. Zubatzubatzubatzubatzubat... it seemed endless, the air was thinning, then Jack did that blue fire thing again and it blasted them away, we ran for the light ahead if us with the sound of schreeching "zubat!" In a discordant roar behind us... a few more steps... and... We were out, the zubats stopped their screeching immediately, and slowly floated back into the depths if the cave... I shuddered... ugh, zubats...

Day 11: The sun was glorious. There were flowers upon my exit from Mt. Moon. A whole field of the things. They were all colors. The beauty of the world. I was stunned for a moment into silence, but I quickly regained my wits, I was dehydrated. I realized it for the first time, between all the little bleeding wounds from the zubats and the fact that I'd for gotten to drink anything at all today combined with all the running I'd done today it was to be expected. Still, the flowers were beautiful dehydration or no.  
I decided that I'd stop by the flowers and drink from the stream that ran along their side. I let Jack and Edge out of their pokeballs to play around. They rather enjoyed it it seemed, Jack just ran around, being very careful not to light any of the flowers on fire. Jack seemed to like the blue flowers best, and wasn't as afraid of going near the stream as one might expect from a charmander, whose tail flame is a major determination of their health.  
Edge was a little more reserved in his enjoyment. He practiced his moves in the field and on every spearow that got too close. I know flying type pokemon usually prey on bugs and fighters, but even so... a spearow was definitely outclassed by Edge. He was like a martial artist so focused and disciplined. It was inspiring. Once I had gotten my fill of water I did something I had never thought of before. I asked Edge to train me.  
Now, granted, I know I don't have and special powers and it sort of upsets the status quo to reverse things like pokemon trainers and pokemon-trainers. It did, however, seem to be in my job description to disrupt the status quo. So it was that while I trained Edge he would train me. His movements were so fluid that I couldn't hope to learn his techniques any time soon, or even to hope to learn many of his moves at all, but his movements could be duplicated... in time.  
I seemed to get a measure of respect from Edge that I hadn't had before then. He saw me as an equal rather than a master. That was how charmander always saw me. The difference with Jack was that we were friends, he was my first pokemon, and there is a necessary bond there, but that bond is harder to find with pokemon you find in the wild, most people never find it. Edge and I trained until the sun went down. I was breathing hard and undoubtedly dehydrated again, but it was worth it. We set up camp for the night just outside the field of flowers and got ready for bed.  
I was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud disturbance. Jack was fighting with a small pinkish purple rabbit-like creature with a horn on its forehead. Jack had taken a beating so far and the creature, a male nidoran from what I could tell, was barely looking damaged, Jack got in a good hit with that blue fire but he was apparently poisoned and the two kicks in conjunction with that took him down. I immediately woke up Edge to come fight the creature and the fight began, the nidoran leered at the heracross, sizing him up, and Edge attacked chipping away at the nidoran's health. The nidoran returned the attack with a violent peck of his own. I could tell that Edge had the... well edge in this fight but the little guy was not making it easy on him. Heracross went in with a horn attack and it hit square, but the nidoran, though harmed, seemed to be smiling. It was then that I could tell its tactic. It let Edge in close so that it could get a sting in with its poisonous horn. I threw a pokeball. The pokeball hit the nidoran but immediately blasted open, its energies spent in a failed attempt to capture the little creature. 'Tougher than it looked' I thought. I could see the same thought cross through Edge's eyes as he blocked another violent peck. I threw another pokeball and this time it wiggled only once before breaking down and letting the creature escape.  
Edge now on his last leg called upon the power of the night to thrash at the nidoran, the poor creature was flung twenty feet into a nearby tree with a sickening CRACK, and then there was silence. Edge was slowly taking damage from the poison but we had won. Or so it seemed. I heard a faint rustling and turned just in time to see the battered creature standing up again, obviously exhausted, but not down and out. My heracross looked at me, obviously impressed, and charged in for another attack. The two collided in a flurry of kicks and slashes. I could see a violent peck that knocked Edge down and I instinctively threw my third, and last pokeball. It only wiggled once. What was this thing? It charged at Heracross who hadn't looked so bad since his battle with Brock and the two collided, I held my breath. They both fell to the ground. They both got back up. They both looked like they might faint at any moment. Edge succumbed to the poison.  
Just like that the battle had turned and the nidoran turned its attention to me, it charged. I did my best to remember what Edge had taught me, and a just managed to dodge the attack, but the nidoran turned around and kicked me so hard I flew back, the contents of my backpack flying everywhere. The nidoran jumped in the air readying a kick that would surely end me. There it was! I frantically grabbed at the thing on the ground. I flipped on my back and put it up to block. The nidoran's kick came in direct contact with the greatball I had used to block, sending numbing pain through my arm and up my shoulder. The greatball blasted open in a spray of light and just as it did I saw in the nidoran's eyes anger and, perhaps, a small measure of respect.  
The greatball twitched once. I struggled to stand. A second twitch, I grabbed for Edge's pokeball. A third twitch. I called Edge back. The greatball went inert. I sighed. For such a small thing it sure had guts... taking on two larger pokemon and their trainer... and winning! Well, more or less. That made sense... I'd name it Guts, and try to earn its respect in the same measure as I had Edge's. That decided, I gathered up the remainder of my meager possessions and went back to sleep, hoping that that would be my last problem for the night.

Day 12: I woke up long after the sun had risen and stretched on the soft and comfortable grass. I summoned Jack and Edge to get up and play in the flowers for a bit before we set out for Cerulean town, the stage of my next gym battle. I then summoned Guts, the newest member of our little troupe. Guts leered at me, sizing me up. Then with my go ahead, he went about defeating all the creatures he could find in the field. I noticed, as he went about this, that he seemed to go after the toughest pokemon in the field, not bothering with little rattata or the few caterpies and weedles nestled between the flowers, but rather he went after the other nidorans (both male and female) as if attempting to establish himself as the dominant force of the field.  
As I was watching guts, I had not been paying as much attention to either Jack or Edge. I now heard a distressed "Charr!" I ran to see what brought up such commotion. Jack was fending off a much larger version of Guts, a nidorino if I'm not mistaken. Jack kept pelting it with embers but it was enraged over something and it kept pushing its attack. In a fury, it continued to attack Jack. Beating him to submission, I called for Edge, but he was on the other side of the field and he'd never get here in time. Jack was unconscious on the ground and the nidorino raised its horn to finish off poor Jack. I ran in to kick the creature off Jack, but a purple blur shot past me as Guts bounded up to the nidorino and kicked it square in the neck.  
The much larger creature reeled at the attack and whirled to see its attacker. It leered at the much smaller Guts and Guts leered right back. You could feel the tension in the air, and I had a sense that these two had history. The larger nidorino charged forward, horn raised ready for an attack, but Guts, as though playing chicken, waited until the last second and dodged to the side kicking off of the nidorino's side as it ran past where Guts had been only a moment before. The nidorino spun, hatred in its eyes, and charged Guts in a fury or attacks. To Guts' credit, he didn't even flinch. The two rammed horns, nidorino flinging Guts away, but getting a terrible gash along its cheek for the trouble.  
The nidorino stepped over to the now unconscious Guts and raised its horn once more to defeat its foe but a rush of heat flew past me as blue fire slammed into the nidorino. It whirled, raging, angered at having been separated from its prey twice in one day to see Jack barely standing on the other side of the battle. It charged at Jack, the charmander barely had time to dodge before another ram from the things horn flung Jack across the field to lay beside Guts. I turned to see Edge running in our direction, but he had his own problems as a small group of male nidorans had surrounded him.  
The nidorino was upon Jack in a moment, but the cry of "Ran-ran!" from behind it caused the nidorino to turn in anger to see its foe standing once more. The two stared each other down, they both charged. At the last second Guts moved almost impreceptibly to the side, dodging the brunt of the nidorino's attack, but it packed violently at the larger creature's eye, tearing it from its socket. The nidorino howled in rage and spun, but Guts was there and as the nidorino turned, its jaw met a bone crunching kick. The nidorino slumped to the ground, defeated, and Guts kicked it once more for good measure then raced over to help Heracross.  
The other nidoran, seeing that their leader had been defeated began to disperse. Guts, however, began to glow and to grow, still charging. When he hit the first of the nidorans he was nearly three times his previous size and he flung the smaller creature aside like it were a sack of potatoes. Guts and Edge made short work of the remaining nidoran and then the two came over to me, apparently pleased with themselves. I summoned Jack back to his pokeball and the three of us took the short road to Cerulean town. We went immediately to the pokecenter as all three of my friends needed to get healed, and then with that done, we went to an in and paid the $50 dollars to stay the night. Tomorrow I intend to do some research on this town's gym and gym leader and see if I can't figure out a strategy to obtain the second badge in my quest to save Kanto from the despotic elite four.

Day 13: After waking up this morning, I decided to take a walk around town and see what I could learn about the gym leader here in Cerulean. I realized that there wasn't one gym leader, but three! They were sisters Daisy, Violet and Lily. They were referred to in the town as the sensational sisters for their skills as water ballet performers. I learned from one of the older men in the town, a fellow by the name of Herb, that they also had a younger sister who was mainly a cleaning help in the gym. The gym had been done over as a dome for their ballets. I also learned that the three gym leaders fought as a team and expected any challenger to face them on those terms. After travelling to the north of town during the day, and defeating a few kids who thought they were cool... teenagers... and racking up a total of $2500 more, I came across a small hut with a sign outside that read 'Bill's House' in big bold letters. 'Guy must think pretty highly of himself' I thought and walked in. No one was home, so I just left and walked back to town. I decided that it would be a good idea to stock up on gear again so I made a stop at the neighborhood pokemart. I bought five potions at $300 each, five pokeballs at $200 each, three antidotes at $100 each and a repel for $350 taking me down to an even $2500. The rest of the day I spent researching which pokemon each of the three sisters used. People were, unfortunately, pretty tight-lipped about all of that and I figured I'd have to find out for myself. So, I went back to the inn, but the woman at the desk said that my night's stay had been paid for. I found this to be curious, but didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, as it were and I went upstairs.  
Once in my room, I finally decided to take off the bandage over my eye. Joyce had said that it should take a week to heal, and it was just over that now. I went to the washroom and began to slowly peel the layers of gauze and cloth bandages from over my eye. The process took about ten minutes and I could tell that the flesh underneath was still raw, but not bloody. My eye was blurry after having been tucked away from the light for a week, and it took another good twenty minutes for me to be able to keep it open long enough to get a good look in the mirror with both eyes. The left side of my face was a mess. The tears that ran from my forehead to my jaw had mostly scabbed over, but it was obvious that I would have a nasty three-claw scar over that side of my face. My eye, however, was remarkably working. As I was exulting in this, I noticed a figure in the doorway behind me, I spun to meet the man standing there. He had short, brown hair and a blue, button up tee, and he stared at me for a moment as if gauging me.  
Finally he spoke up in a cheery voice "Hey-o, my name's Bill! Nice to meetcha! I heard about ya fight with the big Brock man and wan'ned t'see if'n ya might not be tuff'nuff ta be takin' on them 'sational sistas."  
It took me a bit to understand what he had said, but I finally caught on and replied "and?"  
"Oh! Righty! Ya don't seem t'be tuff'nuff ta take 'em on, no sirree! Now, if'n ya could get yer 'mander 'volved inta a 'meleon, ya might have a chance, but even then, that'd be a long shot wot with those 'sational sissys 'avin' water pokes an' all. Now, if'n ya had a moonstone, then things might'n be diff'rent. But them stones are 'spensive, and rare, and... Well a bit outta yer bu'git if'n ya ask me."  
After absorbing his slosh of verbiage, I remembered the stone the old man had given me, and I began rummaging through my bag.  
"Wot might'n ya be lookin' for in there? Candy maybe? Pokes be lovin' their candy that's fer sure!"  
Before I had to drown in another verbal mosh-pit I pulled out the glowing white stone the old man had given me, "So, I have a moonstone, what do I do with it?"  
Bill's eyes lit up "Ya do got a moonstone! Well'n all ya have ta be doin' is be givin' it ta yer guts a' course!"  
I looked down at my shirt, "My ... guts?" I questioned, now a bit suspicious.  
Bill laughed "Not'cher guts boy, yer Guts! Your nid'rino! Give it ta him 'n see wot 'appens!"  
"It won't hurt him?" I asked.  
"Nah, quite th'opp'site in fact! Go on, give it to 'im, 'e'll like it, trust me."  
Bill smiled a knowing smile.  
I sighed and took Guts' pokeball off my belt and summoned him, "This better work," I said and I showed Guts the stone.  
The little, purple guy sniffed the stone once then gobbled it up quicker than I could pull my hand away, he began to glow as he had yesterday and he grew again he must have grown to be just over four and a half feet tall, and all of it muscle. "Nido-KIIINNNG" it roared, shaking the whole building. I turned to thank Bill, but he was no longer there. I let Guts flex his musckes and get used to his change in physique before calling him back so I could get some sleep. Even with his new strength, tomorrow was going to be rough.  
As I fell asleep, I began to wonder, 'Why did Bill help me? Who was Bill, really? Most importantly, what did he want with me and my pokemon,' Then I slipped into the soft embrace of slumber.

Day 14: I woke up, ready for the battle that was to come. The inn had complimentary breakfast and I took them up on that for myself and my pokemon. Guts ate like he had never eaten before, downing two and a half dozen pancakes, and over thirty sausage links, but didn't touch his milk. Edge stuck to the fruit plate, and Jack ate half a dozen eggs. I had a little bit of everything with a tall glass of tomato juice to wash it down.  
Once the four of us were satiated, I called the guys back into their pokeballs. I walked toward the water ballet/gym building and found the place packed. People were lining up to see the dance, and I barely managed to get in before the doors closed behind us. The room was dark and the stench of everyone clustered together was nearly unbearable. There was a flash of light and I was momentarily blinded. Then I could see. The floor of the gym had been redone, there were panels on the ground for people or pokemon to stand on, but most of the gym had been done over as a pool, filled with all sorts of hurdles and hoops.  
Then the show commenced. The three sisters began, Daisy, the blond dove from the highboard doing a masterful spin in midair before splashing gracefully in the water. She must have summoned her luvdisc under water because when she came up, the luvdisc came spinning out of the water as well. Then the lighting changed and went far into the rafters, where Lily was standing, holding onto a rope and sliding down it with one hand to land on a floating fake lily pad while two water type pokemon swam around it in tight, well-rehearsed circles. Then once more, the lights shifted to Violet, the purple-haired sister did a well-rehearsed slip off a coral painted lift over what looked to be solid rock, but just before she hit the ground, a white shape surged out of the water, catching Violet at the last second. The show continued like this for sometime near the end the sisters dragged a human shape out of the water. It was a female, barely conscious, and coughing up water. She had apparently been tied up and told to hold her breath for the show. She had survived, which in and of itself was impressive. The crowd didn't seem as interested in this fourth sister as the other three, and I thought that this last part was unnecessary and cruel. As the three sisters bowed, the crowd cheered and the show was over.  
As the crowd was filing out of the building, I noticed Lily kick her sister awake and shout at her, "Get up, you lazy good for nothing and clean this place up! We have another show tomorrow, and I don't want to slip because lazy Misty didn't dry up the edges of the pool!" Lily looked at her sisters and the angry look on her face shifted to mirth, "Come on sisters! Our public awaits!"  
The three girls left, and Misty stood, coughing as she went to get the mop and bucket. I walked down to the pool, careful not to slip and walked up to the orange-haired girl.  
"Misty was it?" I asked as I got closer.  
"Uh, hi. Who are you? Look. If you're trying to get my sisters' autographs or something, they just left, sorry, you missed them." She said dismissively.  
"Well, I was gonna help you dry this stuff up here, actually. It looked like you might need some help." I said smiling.  
"What's in it for you?" She eyed me as she said this, raising her eyebrow.  
I laughed, "Nothing, really, just looking for something to do until the gym leaders come back, and I figured getting to know the layout for the gym could be helpful if I was gonna challenge them, when they got back." I laughed again, "Plus, you seem like you could use some help, so what do you say?"  
Misty grinned a sly grin, "I say grab a bucket, and a mop, and let me show you a thing or two about how this gym works."  
For the next two or three hours I helped Misty clean the pool and she helped me get a better understanding of how the pool worked, how to flip over the panels on the water, how to prevent your own panel from being flipped over and a few other helpful hints on how not to get pulled into the water. Misty also let me know how, as the youngest sister, she had to do all the chores. She also brought up how, even though she was supposed to be in part leader of this gym, her sisters didn't respect her enough to give her a crack at it. That and they got a perverse joy out of watching her suffer.  
Shortly after we finished cleaning, the sisters came back. They were laughing to themselves about some boy who had been hitting on them when they saw me standing in the gym.  
"Pool's closed, boy, get lost." Violet said to me with a wave of her hand.  
"Yeah! Get lost, no autographs after hours." Followed Daisy, not missing a beat.  
"I'm not looking for an autograph, ladies, I'm looking for a badge." I smirked, that got their attention.  
"That so?" Huffed Lily, "Well, just so happens, we like to beat up punks who wanna take our badges, isn't that right, girls?" The other two nodded their agreement. "You should know that we fight at the same time, which means you'll have to go against triple the pokemon at once, you ain't got a chance."  
With that we took up our positions on the floating pads and summoned our pokemon. Jack, Edge and Guts each appeared out of their pokeballs, ready for battle and each of the sisters summoned their first pokemon. Lily summoned a goldeen, while violet and daisy summoned a seel and a shellder, respectively. The battle was on. Jack was the first to make a move, spraying the enemy goldeen with embers, and it jumped at him, pecking his arm. Then the seel jumped to headbutt Edge. Bad decision. Edge waited until the last moment then attacked with his horn, flinging the seel across the pool. Daisy's shellder tackled Guts and hit him square on, but with his increased strength, he simply caught the creature and gave it a swift double kick, sending it flying as well. That's when the tide started turning. Shellder started hurling spears of ice at Guts, who had to go into a defensive posture and goldeen and seel teamed up on Edge, with seel headbutting and Goldeen coming in for the takedown. Edge managed to knock seel away again, this time into the coral display. Hard enough that it lay unconscious but the goldeen did a reckless takedown attack, all the while getting pelted with embers, so that when it hit Edge with a sickening CRACK, both pokemon passed out from the exertion.  
Meanwhile, shellder had withdrawn into its shell and Guts had jumped over to it, kicking and pecking at it like a pokemon possessed, but that was when dewgong and seaking came out. Just as Guts was finishing off the shellder, a green beam of energy erupted from the freshly summoned dewgong's horn, and at the same time the seaking burst out of the water from behind Guts and rammed its horn into his back, causing him to crumple to the ground.  
"Ha! Is that all you've got? Hardly worth our time, wouldn't you say, sisters? Three of us against one teeny-weenie fire pokemon? He doesn't have a chance." Violet laughed as Daisy summoned the luvdisc I'd seen earlier.  
I was starting to worry.  
Just as the three pokemon were charging at Jack, there came a flurry of stars and a beam of bubbles, both hit the other pokemon squarely, forcing them to halt. I turned, curious to see what had happened. Misty was standing there, hands on hips, with a horsea and a staryu ready for a fight. She gave me a sly grin, "thought you could use some help, three on one is hardly fair."  
"Much appreciated," I responded.  
The three sisters looked very unhappy.  
Lily shouted at Misty, "What are you doing, you little urchin?"  
"Something I should have done a while ago," Misty replied, " Kicking your butts and earning my spot as a gym leader. Next time, you guys clean while I sign autographs for cute boys!"  
With that the battle continued in earnest. Misty took on the dewgong and luvdisc, while Jack went toe-to-toe with Lily's backstabbing seaking. Seaking tried a horn attack on Jack, but he had called up a screen if smoke, causing the horned fish to miss, slamming hard into toe platform before splashing back into the water. There was a moment of calm and then the seaking attacked Jack from behind, pulling both pokemon into the water. I gasped, Lily grinned. Misty's horsea was down, but her staryu blasted the luvdisc with that swift star shooting move right in its pointy face, putting it down for the count. That was when the dewgong shot that green beam at the staryu, blasting it across the field and cracking its center gem. The dewgong turned to me.  
At that moment the water began to bubble and steam, a blue jet of flame erupted from the pool and a glowing creature jumped out of the water, dropping the unconscious body of Lily's seaking down on the platform. Jack looked at me, his yellow-orange scales glistening as the water evaporated off of his, now larger, body. Then he turned to stare down the dewgong. Dewgong growled and jumped in for a headbutt, Jack scratched at the creature's face, but it hit him head-on. The dewgong summoned up an icy wind, but the newly transformed charmeleon was barely phased as he hurled more embers at the dewgong. The dewgong shot out its green beam at Jack, and he stepped back, the platform flipping up from under him and shattering at the impact of the beam. I heard a splash and assumed Jack must have fallen into the water with the remains of the platform, though to be fair, it was very difficult to see anything through the smoke, then there was a burst of blue and a cry of pained "Gong!"  
The room went silent. When the smoke cleared, Jack was sitting, exhausted, next to a very unconscious dewgong. I howled a hooray of triumph, and hugged Jack before turning to the three sisters for my reward. They couldn't deny me the water badge, and they each had to fork over half of the money they had on them (amounting to about $5000, cha-ching!) Then Misty stepped up and demanded to be made a full-fledged gym leader, the three resisted at first, but after a verbal assault from Misty that seemed to physically harm her sisters as they shrunk away from her before acquiescing to her demands.  
Misty stepped over to me and said, "You owe me an ice cream for saving your butt back there." I couldn't argue with that logic. "And you three!" Misty said spinning to her sisters, "Clean this place up! I have a show tomorrow."  
Before her sisters could argue, Misty pulled a lever that flipped over all the platforms, sending her sisters face-first into the water, dunk-tank style, then she pulled me along to get her some ice cream. After about $300 in expensive gelato, we parted ways. It was getting late and, after finding my room was once again paid for at the inn, I made my way upstairs, fully expecting to see that strange man Bill up there. When I got up there, however, there was only a note with my name on it, and three small wrapped packages labelled 'To: Jack', "To: Edge" and "To: Guts". I picked up the note, curious and read it.  
It said simply: ' Good job today kiddo! We've all got high hopes fer ya! Don't get cocky though, the rest will be a good deal tougher. We'll be in touch, and I'll be keeping an eye on ya. ~Bill -P.S. The presents on the table are really expensive rare candies From Johto, my way of saying 'job well done to the boys' tell 'em I say hi!'  
That was the end of the letter, I shook my head thinking how strange this fellow was. I let the guys have their candy before going to bed.  
They earned it.


End file.
